Today I want to tell you about a really good pro-gun bill that has been sponsored by Rep. J.R. Hoell (R-Merrimack 23).
Rep. Hoell serves as NHFCs corporate secretary and has introduced HB 1749. HB 1749 was written with the assistance of Attorney Michael Hammond who is a New Hampshire resident and serves as Legislative Counsel to our partners at Gun Owners of America. If enacted into law, this important bill will stop the anti-gun activities which are occurring far to often in cities and towns. HB 1749 is known as pre-emption legislation, reserving for the General Court (legislature) the exclusive authority to regulate firearms.
Sadly, we thought that we solved the problem of local gun bans way back in 2003 when we helped to enact R.S.A. 159:26 which is pretty clear:
“…the state of New Hampshire shall have authority and jurisdiction over the sale, purchase, ownership, use, possession, transportation, licensing, permitting, taxation, or other matter pertaining to firearms, firearms components, ammunition, firearms supplies, or knives in the state. Except as otherwise specifically provided by statute, no ordinance or regulation of a political subdivision may regulate the sale, purchase, ownership, use, possession, transportation, licensing, permitting, taxation, or other matter pertaining to firearms, firearms components, ammunition, or firearms supplies in the state.”
But, alas, anti-gun officials from Milford to Lebanon to Salem and many other towns are still enacting anti-gun ordinances and rules. HB 1749 will not only strengthen the clear language in R.S.A. 159:26 but it will also add penalties to the law. Attorney Hammond helped us to write a penalty section into HB 1749 that is very similar to the penalties that were enacted in Florida in 2011. Florida’s pre-emption law was ignored for close to 25 years. Finally, in 2011, when the penalties were added, local officials started to follow state law. I have been credibly informed that the situation in Florida changed virtually overnight once the penalties were added to the pre-emption law. We need to do the same thing in New Hampshire.
In fact, the anti-gun Milford Selectmen who closed a shooting range are screaming the loudest. We will not be deterred, HB 1749 is probably one of the most important pieces of pro-gun legislation to be introduced in quite some time other than Constitutional Carry. Gun owners need to follow a single set of laws. It is bad enough that firearms owners are arrested with regularity on our Southern Border. Because the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua is so close to the border that large sections of the parking lot are in Tyngsborough, MA. Those carrying concealed may be unaware of this and are at risk of arrest. If you go to the mall, park near Dicks Sporting Good or Target, do not park near Sears. Don’t believe me, click here to see a Google Earth screenshot of the mall and the state line. (By the way this is why we must also work to pass HR 38, without the anti-gun Fix NICS amendment. Click here for information on that bill and here for some additional information all from Gun Owners of America.)
We all understand that Massachusetts is run by gun haters, but to place such a burden on a person who drives from Amherst into Milford, or sets foot in the Hillsborough County Nursing Home to visit a loved on or even walks onto school property in Lebanon, all located in New Hampshire, while carrying a gun is completely unacceptable and which is why HB 1749 must be enacted into law.
Once a hearing is scheduled, we will let you know and hopefully, you will be able to call and write your legislators and attend the public hearing. Erich Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America has promised to help us enact HB 1749, but I am counting on you, the grassroots gun owner to push it through the legislative process — without any anti-gun amendments.
If you are an NHFC member, you will shortly receive a paper renewal letter in the mail. Please consider renewing now by clicking here. Its quick and easy to renew your membership online and you won’t have to worry about forgetting to renew or misplacing the paperwork. If you renew online we will send you a new membership card by return mail. If you have been receiving our alerts and find them helpful but are not an NHFC member please consider joining New Hampshire’s only no compromise firearms civil rights organization by clicking here. NHFC is 100% volunteer with low overhead and no paid staff. We use your membership dues to pay for mailings to stop anti-gun legislation and to hopefully, enact pro-gun reform legislation.
Thanks for your support!
In liberty,
Vice President & Training Director – NHFC
